Artist Statement

Melissa Misla’s mixed-media practice explores identity, memory, and belonging within the Puerto Rican diaspora, focusing on the Latinx home and New York City apartments. Through painting, collage, and installation, she layers found materials and vibrant color to evoke the culturally dualistic environments that have shaped her community, creating visual narratives that honor diasporic resilience and creativity.

Influenced by her Nuyorican roots and artists such as Pepón Osorio, Juan Sánchez, and Nitza Tufiño, Misla creates immersive works that engage the complexities of home, safe space, and cultural hybridity. Her practice expands these themes to include queer experience, examining how Latinx and queer identities intersect and are negotiated through space and environment while challenging stereotypes and reclaiming personal and collective narratives.

Through playful yet poignant compositions, Misla invites viewers to reflect on their own experiences of belonging and self-determination within a society that often overlooks diasporic and queer histories.

Biography

Melissa Misla (she/her) is a queer Nuyorican mixed-media artist based in Queens, New York. Her work explores identity, memory, and belonging within the Puerto Rican diaspora through painting, collage, and immersive installation rooted in the visual language of Latinx homes and New York City apartments.

Misla holds a BFA from Hunter College and an MFA from Queens College. Her work has been exhibited at venues including El Museo del Barrio, Buffalo AKG Art Museum, NY Latin American Art Triennial, and Heckscher Museum of Art.